HR & recruiting glossary

What is GDPR Compliance in Recruiting?

GDPR compliance in recruiting requires a lawful basis for processing candidate data, transparency about how it is used, defined retention limits, and working rights of access, rectification and erasure. It applies to any employer processing data of candidates in the European Union.

Last updated July 2026 · Reviewed by the TalentHive product team

Recruiting-specific obligations include telling candidates how long data is retained and why, obtaining consent to keep records for future opportunities, and honouring erasure requests within the statutory window. Article 22 also gives individuals rights concerning decisions based solely on automated processing — another reason a human must own every rejection.

These are architectural requirements, not policy statements: enforceable retention windows, a real erasure path that reaches every store including recordings, and tenant-level data isolation.

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